My visionary yet irreverent impressions of this week's Photoforum Gallery as seen at http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery.html. Dan Mitchell (Study in Scarlett) - I find it very busy and overpowering. It's confusing me. The left most vertical shaft with the padlock eyes and the inverted triangle mouth looks like an angry alien from an early sci-fi movie. This has been carefully coupled with the abundance of red warning lights. If only the red banner with yellow printing were yellow with red printing you'd have a red star and a vaguely sickle-like shape. The perfect 1950's American nightmare - aliens and communists. Snapper Bob - Almost a study in scarlet itself but not quite so forceful. This shot is almost peaceful in arrangement. It has a casual look but hints that its carefully planned. No visible name on the credit card or papers. The best part is the joke of course. Well worn condom holder, cheap hotel key, 2 divorces away from a free wedding shoot and, of course, a message on the phone. The owner of these items is on the move just like all the crap in this shot. Nothing is touching the bottom of the frame. Nothing is grounded. Beautiful. Gregory david Stempel (Trucks) - Interesting composition. Entering from the left I'm bounced over a series of arches (and its a rough ride) until I finally find a place to rest bottom right where I look back over where I've just been. It reminds me of climbing hills as a kid just to sit at the top and look around. I like it. Emily L. Ferguson (They're really pink) - Perhaps the fisherman is making a statement about his lifestyle preference and has no sense of humor at all. Perhaps he's just tired of all the snide comments he gets down at 'Traps R Us'. Perhaps, just perhaps, its high time the boys shootin' pool down at 'Moby Dicks' on a Friday night accept him for who he is. Aside from that, the image seems to be a tad on the dark side. David Thompson (Double Cross) - My first impression was that the image was freakin' me out alright but I do love the blurred face. She looks more ecstatic that troubled which in itself is interesting what with the brace on her leg and what looks like a large wood worker's clamp on her chest. Jim Davis (foggy morning in the park) - This is my favourite so far of the 'foggy morning in the park' series. I'm personally not too much into landscape so I would crop off the top third and the bottom third were it my shot. The fog sure was nice that day though. With the first few 'foggy morning' shots, I liked the contrast of pale scenery and vibrant grass but I think it might be too much of a contrast here for my liking. I find the brown ground behind the grass adds enough color to the shot for me. jIMMY Harris (Indian Paintbrush) - jIMMY what are you trying to do with that background? Its painfully flat and its sucking me into the monitor. There's a harsh contrast with the red but even harsher is the contrast between the border and the web page which is vibrating ceaselessly. The flower look interesting but alas I have to look away before the voices start telling me what to do again. Peeter Vissak (Drinking milk) - What! No ice! No fire! Is Estonia falling apart! I have to get right into this shot to see what I want to see. The milk bottle is nicely perpendicular to the window frame. I like the range of shapes from rectangular window, the square within the window, the milk bottle which combines curves and the rectangle and then the flowing curves of the little face with that one eye that draws me in. Again, were this my shot I would crop heavily to isolate the are I just mentioned. Richard Cooper (Fishing) - I'm not getting any impression from this shot. Jim Snarski (Street Seen) - What I like most about this shot is the way the feet of the 4 people line up in a zig-zag pattern which is the same pattern in which the street is tiled. Other than that, I'm impressed with the load handling capacity of Chinese motorcycles. The old girl watching thing is quite a common theme and perhaps its that commonality which Jim is portraying. People are the same wherever you go. Guy Glorieux (Quebec City - Roofs in the Old Town) - Now that's a lot of squares and triangles massed together in a small area but they form groups which makes it less confusing. The first thing I noticed was the out-of-place patch of green copper upper left. But then I noticed the blue Quebec flag diagonally opposite and I calmed down a bit. Its a neat combination. Christopher Strevens, LRPS (Lambing at Bockets Farm) - I know this is perfectly natural and nothing weird is going on but I just get a weird vibe from this shot. No doubt a problem on my part. A great big thanks to the PF staff for continued support of the gallery and thanks to the contributors. Greg Fraser Master of Funk http://users.imag.net/~lon2251/Gallery Greg Fraser Master of Funk http://users.imag.net/~lon2251/Gallery
